


A Cut Above

by Menolith



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Character Background, Gen, One-Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:49:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25209490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menolith/pseuds/Menolith
Summary: Aedan has a grand old time having people jump through hoops for fun and profit. And an occasional spot of assassination.Just another day, just another mark.





	A Cut Above

Aedan leaned on the windowsill of his rented room, breathing in the salty air. The night was cool, and he could hear the steady commotion of a fully staffed tavern from the floors below.

It was a good night to shank a fucker.

A simple jig. Just lure the brute in, wait for the others to do what they're meant to, and then stab the bastard and run off with the goods. In and out, ten minutes tops, basically free money.

Seriously, dealing with brigands was so refreshing. Often when swindling regular people, Aedan's conscience reared its head and forced him to make concessions, but with people like this? Stab 'em and they don't dare call a guard, kill 'em and you'll get a pat on the back. "Honor among thieves" was a thing, sure, but it was an unspoken agreement that getting overly violent with townsfolk meant that some of the usual courtesies of the trade weren't extended to you. Like not getting stabbed and rolled into a gutter for beating the local fletcher comatose.

Simple, really. Not pissing in the communal sandbox was a lesson that most people learned by the age of 5, and nobody wanted the Royal Guard to have any interest in getting involved in curbing the criminal activities here. Which they certainly would, if people like Bryce were allowed to bully as they pleased. So fun to work on a self-regulating field of work.

Aedan took a deep breath as he heard the door to the room open behind him. He put on his best disarming smile, turned around and spread his arms in a welcoming gesture. "Bryce!" he said, as if greeting and old beloved friend as the mark of the day walked in. "You're late, but who isn't, these days. Roads have all gone to shit, no?"

Bryce just grunted in response, as eloquent as ever. Broad of shoulder and low of brow, he was a textbook example of a dumb brute. His facial hair was patchy brown, matching his balding scalp, and the heavy expression etched on his face reminded Aedan of a toad if it weren't for the out-of-place pale blue eyes. Thugs like that had their place in the grand scheme of things, but usually next to someone who did the talking so all they had to do was to look mean. Bryce, though, had managed to come to his own by becoming the ringleader instead. With the intelligence, subtlety and self-control of a falling brick, of course, which meant that his merry band of violent cavemen were without a moderating influence.

Hmm. "Moderating Influence." That would make for a good name for his sword, actually, if he ever got around naming it.

Aedan pushed idle thoughts aside and measured Bryce's demeanor, relaxing his body language and giving out a small chuckle at his gruffness. "Fine, fine, I won't keep you too long. Busy evening ahead, right?"

"Yeah," Bryce grunted and shouldered into the room, pushing the door closed. "Real busy."

Busy indeed. Setting the stables on fire to make a distraction so that they could loot the magistrate's office was a cunning plan for a brick. Sadly, in it's bluntness, it was also likely to be extremely effective, even if it meant that half of the town burnt down to the ground. Arson and murder were to be doled out in moderation, and it was time for Aedan to demonstrate his influence.

"I'll cut to the chase." He turned around to point out of the window towards the stables, broadcasting open vulnerability to put Bryce at ease while using his other hand to brush against the ring on the pommel of the small dagger strapped to his front. All he had to do was to get close, now. "I've been told the broad strokes of the plan, and I can't but feel like you're missing a detail. Would you be so kind—"

It was only instinct that let him roll away as a heavy axehead crashed down where his skull had been, splitting the windowsill in two. Aedan hit the floorboards hard, coughing out an exhale as his mind was catching up. The jig was up, but how? Couldn't be him. He was good at this. Someone must have—

He had to dive to the side before finishing the train of thought as Bryce tore the axe out of the wood and sent it back towards Aedan in one vicious sweep.

"What—" he managed to say out of instinct before he had to duck under the blade, this time cutting it close enough to slash the edge of his hood.

"Fucking elves," was all Bryce said as he resumed his assault, and Aedan just barely managed to pull out his sword before he was cleaved in half. With his weapon in hand, he was able to leverage the suddenly added range to push Bryce back a few paces, just enough that Aedan could right himself and properly prepare for the fight. Hard way it was, then. He snarled and raised his sword, deftly deflecting a quick swipe of the axe.

It would have been just so much more convenient to slip a dagger in his neck and drop him out of the window for the guards to ignore, but someone had screwed up. No matter, he was out of his depth here. Aedan had not been in this town for too long, but he had enough connections to play the thugs like a fiddle, and his accomplices should be tying up loose ends elsewhere. Now all he had to do was just cut him up and pay the tavernkeeper for all the blood.

He fell into a dueling stance with a smile, erratically flicking the tip of his sword this way and that. Almost like tricking a magpie with something shiny, distracting him from the footwork which was the real tell-tale for where the attack would come.

Bryce measured him up and down with a sneer before barreling towards him again, axe swinging wildly. It was all too easy, dealing with idiots like this.

For the second time, Aedan's train of thought was abruptly interrupted when Bryce flicked his axe up at the last moment, faster than he had ever moved before, pushing the sword out of the way and ramming the haft of his weapon into Aedan's sternum. The impact shocked the air out of him and made him stumble back, and Bryce continued his momentum and bodily slammed into him, sending them stumbling to the ground with Aedan taking the brunt of the fall.

Even through the sudden pain and lack of air, Aedan's instincts pulled through and he miraculously managed to shove aside the hand trying to hold his head down, and with a painful lurch, he twisted himself from under Bryce just before he managed to punch the blade of the axe into his neck like a guillotine. Aedan tried to scramble to his feet, but Bryce immediately swung the axe in his direction, letting the haft slide in his hand so that it struck like a pendulum which forced Aedan to fall back to the floor to avoid the hit.

This was all wrong. The fight should have been quick and easy, not a slugging match like this where he had thrice now just barely dodged a lethal hit. Bryce was a brute, not someone who could pull off fluid feints and counterattacks like that. But... he was. Aedan swallowed and forced himself to his feet, thanking his elven blood and light frame. He had underestimated Bryce, badly, and... Why was he smirking?

Bryce got up himself only a moment after Aedan, bearing a crooked smile. "Thought you had one over me, huh? So fucking smart." He spat out the words, and there was something in his eyes which gave Aedan a pause, and he hesitated.

How badly had he botched this? His eyes flicked to the door behind Bryce, and he could hear the stomping of feet coming up the stairs. Bryce twitched his head minutely and his smile grew toothy, giving Aedan just a minute warning before he came barreling at him again, axe held in two hands. Aedan swore and managed to hold him at bay with a rapid series of jabs, this time more cautious of the explosive speed Bryce was apparently capable of. Even so, the price of caution was ceded ground, and he found himself uncomfortably close to the window he had intended to throw Bryce's body out of.

Bryce saw this and only grunted in amusement, going for a surprise shove with the butt of the weapon which Aedan had to dodge, barely not cracking his heel on the wall.

Aedan swallowed, hearing the thrum of the boots reach the door. "Look, we—"

He didn't have time to finish the sentence as Bryce swiped for his throat, making him do a forceful parry as the door was kicked open. He had held onto a swiftly waning hope that it would be allies, but by the looks of them, the gang of brutes were decidedly not on his side. Distantly, he recognized Hedrick and Andersen from the bunch, people he was sure he had thoroughly in his corner.

"We don't need your talking here." Bryce waited for them to fall to his sides, all bearing arms, and slowly raised his axe towards Aedan.

In a moment of ominous clarity, Aedan took stock of the situation and his imminent death. Outmanned, outgunned, out-armored and, tallying all that up, outplayed. It was... clear, in a way, to have all of the cards on the table. All of the cards he'd ever have if he played them wrong, and so with confidence he didn't know he had, he started raising his hands up.

"Just one last thing..." he said with careful enunciation, and hooked his thumb on the ring on the dagger on his front. His aim was terrible but they were close, so he went for the throat in a desperate attack. Bryce snarled and Aedan thrust his hand forward, yanking the dagger from its sheath and shooting it out, his other hand falling down to catch the axe going for his side.

The room exploded in chaos with people screaming and shouting, but the only thing Aedan could focus on was the nasty crunch when the axe crashed into his bottom ribs, sending a white-hot flare of pain to short his thoughts. He gritted his teeth and thrust himself backwards by the axe, managing to catch a glimpse of Bryce toppling over with the knife buried in his neck. He mirrored the motion and tumbled out of the window, air rushing in his ears as he tried to orient himself despite the pain.

* * *

It was not a good night.

Aedan groaned and leaned on a barrel in the barge, trying to focus on the sound of the waves rather than the acute, throbbing spikes of heat coming from his side with every breath. It was a miracle he even had a torso now, as the axe had hit the hidden sheath of the other knife he kept on his person. The blade was bent to uselessness now, but it had absorbed enough of the impact to just break a few ribs and leave a long, if superficial gash on his side.

The fall, though, hadn't been kinder. He could feel his pulse painfully on his rapidly swelling wrist which might or might not be broken, and he had managed to break his fall on a length of scrap wood which had gouged a nasty gash on the side of his neck which was bleeding through a second bandage. Thank the gods that the thugs had not elected to chase him through the window, so he had just barely had enough headstart to slink into the apothecary's and hobble out of the backdoor before they got too near. Getting to the docks was mostly a reddish haze in his memory, and now that he had managed to sit down, the downturn of adrenaline made him increasingly aware of how much it hurt.

He shivered and shook his head. That... that had been too close. Far too close. The boat rocked, making him accidentally lean on his tender wrist and hiss in pain. No, not even close, this really might be it, if the bleeding didn't die down soon. But just... why? How? He was better than this. People didn't run circles around him like this—he _was_ the one who was supposed to do the running! He exhaled through his teeth, head swimming as he tried to remember just what all he had misinterpreted. Focusing was difficult, and all he could think about were the calculating blue eyes staring him down from behind of the axe's blade.

**Author's Note:**

> Remember kids: 15 CHA won't help if your WIS is 8.


End file.
